WWE SmackDown Rating Falls To New Low

The good news in the ratings did not last long for WWE following Monday night’s Raw seeing a slight increase in viewership, with Tuesday’s taped episode of SmackDown from London falling to 1.827 million viewers, the lowest since moving to USA.

This was below the previous low, set two weeks ago when the show pulled in a marginally better 1.833 million. SmackDown did have tough competition but that’s been the case forever at this time of year so it is not an excuse.

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The equivalent broadcast this time last year did 2.298 million viewers and 2.175 in 2017, both of which were down from the average so this is traditionally a bad week for WWE in the ratings.

It is becoming very apparent that the hotshot decision to utilise wildcards on Raw and SmackDown is not really working as WWE hoped and is certainly not the long-term answer to the promotion’s ratings woes. This was probably the last thing WWE wanted on a day when new rival AEW announced its industry-changing TV deal with TNT.